Previously, there have been challenges in precisely depositing an insulating layer on substrates of various surface roughnesses. Conventional deposition processes have resulted in poor levels of conformality (uniform thickness or surface coverage uniformity of the insulating layer over the substrate) and thickness control, resulting in thin spots or undeposited areas. Generally, the resulting thin spots or undeposited areas lead to premature breakdown and/or a high defect density in the production of an electronic device. Thus, an ideal deposition process for depositing insulating layers on substrates having various surface roughnesses has been difficult to achieve.
Typically, insulating layers in high performance electronic devices are deposited by chemical vapor deposition (CVD). However, CVD methods may not achieve a desired level of conformality, resulting in the production of substandard capacitors having thin spots or undeposited areas. It would be advantageous to replace such processing steps with more effective processing techniques.